Subtly Sexy
by Fourteen Lines
Summary: Intended to be a three-shot, but it'll be a short series instead. VinTi fluff. There is something addictive about her touch that Vincent found tempting to relive. And how does he wish to do that? Through the ancient art of seduction, of course.
1. Chapter 1

**Subtly Sexy: Chapter 1**

There is something subtly sexy about the female fighter.

Vincent Valentine first felt her touch seven years ago in the old submarine with air too stale for comfort. That day, Cloud, Vincent and Tifa had chanced upon a cave hidden behind a curtain of waterfall that they would have otherwise missed had Vincent not felt a strange familiarity coming from behind the water.

He had left that cave broken, having lied to Lucrecia about Sephiroth. A white lie to assure her that her son is dead, and was not actually planning on bringing the planet down like his sanity. It was a feeling he could never forget, the millions of needles that seemed to prick into the tender flesh of his heart for every word he heard from her, not about him, but about her son. It brought him to his knees, knowing exactly how much hurt he had caused her with his inability to stop Hojo.

Had he any tears, he would have been crying that night when Tifa knocked on his door.

"Hey." She was wearing her usual smile, friendly and bordering on being motherly. He gave a nod as a response, not really in the mood for any conversation at all. His stare back then should have scared her away, but she seemed rather immune to his coldness.

"Can I come in?" As much as he preferred to be left alone, the gentleman inside of him could not bring himself to reject her, for it would certainly cause her to feel, on some levels, hurt. And thus, he moved from the door and allowed her access into his room, unknowingly opening the first gap for her to enter his heart.

On her way in, she flipped the light switch on and walked over to the small window by his bed. After closing the door, he moved towards her and stood silent as she watched the fishes swim pass them. Their silence continued for a while before she spoke.

"…I saw it." It took a while for Vincent to realize that she was not, in fact, watching the fishes, but thinking, about the words she wished to say to him. "Your memories… with Lucrecia. Cloud and I both saw it when we were in the cave." Her voice was silent, testing his boundaries.

"…I see." He shifted his posture and folded his arms, a blatant attempt to make her stop that conversation.

Only, it did not quite work, and she moved towards him, too close for a man that had avoided physical intimacy. He averted his gaze from her as the lights in the room did little concealing to the hurt that must have been present in his eyes. "The pain… have to go away somehow, you know."

He closed his eyes and his jaw tensed, the heartache returning again. "…Indeed." These were words he did not need to hear form others, subconsciously, he knew. He knew that the past would never let him go, and there were no way back to those innocent days again. No way Lucrecia and him could ever get back together, no way out of this sin. The only way out of this pain, was to forget, and move on.

At his reply, she turned away and walked towards his bed, her fingers intertwined behind her, pulling her shoulders back. She looked up into the ceiling, too low as compared to the sky, but he knew she was looking at a world beyond that small little room. Her strength seemed to emanate from her body, into his soul, and for the first time in those few weeks that they had travelled together, he felt pure, intense admiration for the young woman. At the age of twenty, she was a beauty with a strong will, a strong heart, and a beautiful soul.

"People have many things pent up inside of them, so many things they can never forget." She turned around to face him, arms still behind her back as her head tilted towards her left shoulder with a smile that seemed to shine into the darkness of his heart. "Strange, isn't it?"

The way she had, so beautifully put across all the darkness in his heart triggered something within him that he had long thought dead. "Yes, indeed." He buried his face into the collar of his cloak and felt a soft tug on his lips as a surge of peace enveloped him.

Tifa had a calming effect.

It was something distinctly hers, different from Aerith's. The ancient was able to somehow, connect to the emotions and psychological state of humans, and touch them from within. It was something innate, and spiritual. Tifa was different.

She was simply human. She connects not to you, but through showing you the human tenderness that she has, her understanding of your pain. Like a mother, like a best friend, like a soul mate. Like someone who would accept all your sins as part of who you are, someone who will believe in you when you doubt yourself.

Silently, she sat on his bed, and patted on the space beside her, urging him forward. It was against his usual self to accept the closeness, but at that point in time, he was too enthralled by the beauty of her heart. He sat on the exact spot she had patted, and allowed his eyes to meet hers. Not knowing what was showing in them, but rather, allowed the moment to stretch. He could see the slight movement of her irises, signalling that she was looking at his eyes, moving from the first to the other.

With a smile that seemed to show contentment at whatever she had seen in those eyes, she closed hers and placed her right hand on his left bicep. "I am not you, Vincent. I can never know how intense your pain is, but I'm sure it will pass. We all need to accept our demons somehow. And hope that, maybe… one day they will all disappear."

Did she have demons too? He found himself thinking. Is it Cloud? Is it her all-consuming love for the man? Or is it the painful past left behind by Sephiroth?

Or, perhaps, all of those?

He nodded, and felt a tugging pressure from her hand on him, pulling him down to her. Her other arm wrapped around his neck and she scooted slightly away from him, allowing him to fall comfortable into the crook of her neck. Had he not been weakened by her words, and the pain from the incidents of the day, he would have resisted. But the soft flesh of her shoulder, warmth of her breath on the back of his head, subtle rise and fall of her chest against his, alongside the light scent of something fruity, had disolluted all his barriers. That night, covered in her peace, Vincent fell into a deep slumber without nightmares.

There is something subtly sexy about her calming effect.

Vincent found himself thinking about her more and more ever since the days of tension ended. Sephiroth, Kadaj's gang, Deepground, they were all fine distractions for him. But now that they were all gone, he was left with emptiness again. He longed to feel that calm, calm that he had only felt that once in his long life, not this mundane, boring days in the WRO headquarters.

Fate seemed willing to string them together. Just last week, he had received a text message from Cid, asking him to check up on Tifa. Apparently, ever since Barret had taken Marlene and Denzel in his custody three years ago, things between Tifa and Cloud crumbled. They went about their separate ways last month.

Cloud now live with him, Reeve and the other personnels of WRO in their headquarters. Tifa left for Kalm.

With nothing on his hands, Vincent tuned the radio in his room to the channel that Tifa had been following since their Avalanche days, and listened.

"Miss T has sent in yet another mail to us, with a song she wish to dedicate to "Everyone who had a past they wish to forget".

_What hurts the most,_

_Was being so close._

_And having so much to say_

_And watching you walk away._

"A nice song indeed, Miss T. Perhaps you will find a way out of the past, through some distractions. I'm sure someone will come along! Now, moving on to our next song dedication…"

_Tifa_, he asked in his heart, _do you wish for someone to distract you from the pain?_

There is something subtly sexy about her vulnerability that had drawn Vincent in.

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**Author's Notes:** There's a part two and three to this, will be up soon since I've already finished writing them. The next chapters would be more light-hearted and fluffy, this is like the build up to those. Leave a review so I can feel better about my sad, mundane, boring and sickeningly parasitic life.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow. I'm an asshole for not updating this even when I've written the chapters. Next chapter should be up in one or two days, doing some editing while milking reviews.

* * *

**Subtly Sexy: Chapter Two**

There is something subtly sexy about the gunslinger.

Especially the way his stare made her feel. It's been two weeks since he had abruptly visited her small cottage in Kalm. He provided no reason, neither did he bring more than a small backpack with three sets of clothing. He merely deadpanned, "…Can I come in?"

Tifa Lockhart welcomed the intrusion more than she thought she would have. Her life was getting too mundane for a woman that had lived her past twenty-seven years fighting. Vincent was a good distraction. The first night, she had barely enough dinner for the both of them, and had decided to bake an apple pie to fill their stomachs. He offered to help.

He tossed his red cloak over the couch in the living room and joined Tifa in the kitchen. She was doing the dishes, and seeing that he was serious in his offer to help, she tossed him a few apples and asked him to slice them. Except, he was not keen in the usual way of cutting them.

The sound of apples falling onto the countertop distracted Tifa from her chores. And when she looked over her shoulders, she was faced with the sight of Vincent tossing the apples and slashing his gauntlet against them.

"Vincent… What are you doing?"

He placed the two apples that he was about to throw back onto the table and frowned. "Slicing the apples."

She did not know if he was trying to put on a show to show off his masculinity with the flawless, perfect cuts on the apples, sliced vertically into four equal parts, or he simply had no experience in the kitchen. Either way, the act was too humourous to ignore and with hands dripping wet with soapy water, she hugged her stomach and laughed.

"Vincent! You can use the knife!" He looked down at the apples, and for a moment, Tifa thought she saw a faint smile on his lips. Perhaps after seven years, Vincent had learnt to accept his human emotions. She walked towards him, eyes still shining from amusement, and passed him the chopping board with a knife. "You have to slice it thin enough, or you'd ruin the texture of the pie."

She took the apples from his hand and set it down beside the chunks he had sliced. After positioning them, she made the slicing look too easy. "You're well trained, Tifa."

Too hooked up at the moment of that comedic episode, Tifa jerked slightly at his proximity. Without her realization, Vincent had moved between her and the wall, too close for comfort, his fingers held the corner of the counter, their shoulders touching and some of his long hair was now across her shoulder. He hummed in his throat and looked down at her; she found herself staring back at his red riveting eyes.

This was not the way Vincent usually acted. He stayed away from people. The only time she had touched him, was when he was shattered inside after meeting Lucrecia in a cave. Even then, he had not initiated any contact. "Yeah. Well, if you remembered, I cooked our meals back then on the Highwind." She laughed, brushing away Vincent's changes aside. It was a good change, healthy for a man who always locked himself in the depths of his thoughts.

"Of course I remember, Tifa." His usual baritone sounded different from what she was used to, now it held a tender edge, and its previous coldness gone. "…I remember everything about you." The second part was softer than the first, and Tifa thought she had heard him wrong. Except his voice was too close for her to miss, and she found herself stumped, speechless for a moment at his blatant show of… affection.

Had she been delusional, she would think he had some interest in her romantically. But this was Vincent, and she brushed it aside. Instead of words, she smiled at him and moved to transfer the apples onto a bowl and marinate them with some salt and a light tinge of lemon juice. He followed her around the kitchen, asking some questions every now and then, almost like he wanted her attention to be on him.

As she finished the dishes and started kneading the dough, he offered to help again. This time, Tifa made sure she taught him every step of mixing the butter, flour, cinnamon and salt.

Something in Vincent had changed, into something absolutely magnetic and so subtly sexy.


End file.
